Still Ellinor had a secret perennial source of sunshine in her heart; whenever she thought of Ralph she could not feel much oppression from the present unspoken and indistinct gloom.

He loved her; and oh, how she loved him! and perhaps this very next autumn--but that depended on his own success in his profession.

After all, if it was not this autumn it would be the next; and with the letters that she received weekly, and the occasional visits that her lover ran down to Hamley to pay Mr.Ness, Ellinor felt as if she would almost prefer the delay of the time when she must leave her father's for a husband's roof..